Now reading is the most used way of transmitting information, and the book is its carrier. However, this has always been the case, at all times. Therefore, it is important and even necessary to get carried away with reading, because it is not without reason that they say: “If you have the information, you have the situation.” But what is the benefit of reading, and is there any at all? Firstly, constant reading trains the brain. When you read, the way you perceive the world changes: you begin to fantasize, create certain “book” images (places, people, events). In addition, books improve memory, broaden horizons, and change spelling. Yes, yes, that’s right: when you read, your visual memory works, which will prevent you from making mistakes in texts in the future. Also, frequent reading teaches you to concentrate on a book, or anything else in general, and increases perseverance and mood. Secondly, reading books increases your vocabulary, a special way of thinking appears, due to which thoughts are clearly expressed and easily formulated. You can see this for yourself: just read some classic. After this, anyone (even those who previously “couldn’t put two words together”) will notice how much easier it has become to express their own thoughts using words. He will notice how it has become easier to express himself and choose words. He will notice that various parasitic words are leaving his vocabulary. Thirdly, reading is simply an interesting activity. It is thanks to him that you can find new interlocutors, friends, like-minded people or topics for conversation with them. Book lovers are also very friendly, it’s always easy to communicate with them. You can have a nice time free time, while improving your mood and inspiration. As a last resort, just enjoy a conversation with the author or his story, story. Reading does not get boring, does not become insipid: there are a lot of books, and each of them is unique in its own way. And finally, fourth: each reading process is, in fact, a small journey, in time or distance. The book simply breaks through various time frames and restrictions. Only with its help can you feel and understand the thoughts of thousands of writers from different eras and times. Isn't this amazing? Just reading will make it clear how Defoe thought, what kind of outlook Wells had, and what puzzled Jansson. Just reading will allow us to feel, understand, experience the writer, even if he is already dead. It is for this reason that any book, even not very old, is a real “time machine”, the use of which can change your whole life. In general, reading is an integral process at the stages of formation of an adult personality. A process that begins in infancy, when a child is read aloud by his parents and relatives. And ending with adulthood, during the experience of personal problems and spiritual growth, when literature saves from depression, sets morality and ideals. Books and reading have a huge influence on all of us and shape us. They make us human. This is all their benefit!
How often do you read books? Most people read about 1,000 books in their lifetime, but there are also those who don't read them at all. Statistics say that only 55% of Russians and 51% of Ukrainians read at least 1 book in 2017. An interesting fact: according to the results of a survey in the Russian Federation, it turned out that people from villages read the most (6-7 books on average), and residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg read the least (5 books on average).
Why read books
A person reading can be seen a mile away. He is comprehensively developed and intelligent, while being an excellent conversationalist. In life, it is much easier for such people to cope with difficulties and achieve their goals.
Finally, almost everything successful individuals devote a significant portion of their time to reading. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Pavel Durov - they all read at least 50 books annually and encourage people to do the same public speaking and interviews. But are books really as useful as is commonly believed?
How books make us smarter
“Knowledge is power,” each of us is told from early childhood, but this statement is not entirely true. Knowledge is only potential power, which is worthless until it is put into practice. This fact explains that out of millions of book lovers, only a few manage to achieve any significant heights. Unused knowledge is useless, and only actions bring results.
Types of reading
However, books provide more than just a collection of facts. There are several types of reading.
- Studying. Reading slowly with the goal of fully studying and understanding what is written. This implies the application of the acquired knowledge in the future. In this way, the most important literature or its individual fragments are read.
- Introductory. This is how fiction is most often read. The reader gets acquainted with the main content of the text and the author's argumentation. The degree of understanding of information is about 70%.
- Viewable. The reader quickly scans the text to determine whether it contains the necessary information, and then decides to study what is written in more depth.
- Search engine. The reader is looking for specific information without reading the entire text. The fragment in which the necessary data was found is studied in detail.
The benefits of search and browsing reading are limited to quickly obtaining the necessary data. Studying and introductory reading is much more productive in this regard. A person does not just receive dry facts, but also uses the analytical and creative parts of the brain.
Benefits of reading books
- Books make people happier. Scientists from the University of Liverpool came to this conclusion. Based on a survey of 4,000 people, it was found that people who read suffer less from depression, cope with problems more easily and have higher self-esteem.
- Books protect memory. The fact was established by researchers from the American Academy of Neurology. The experiment involved 294 people approximately 6 years before their death. It turned out that reading can slow down the rate of memory decline as we age by more than 32%.
- Reading increases intelligence. Scientists from King's College London and the University of Edinburgh followed 1,890 pairs of twins for about 9 years. During the experiment, it was found that there is a clear relationship between reading skills and the cognitive capabilities of the subjects. In other words, the more a person reads, the better he is developed as a person.
These changes are possible only during exploratory and introductory reading, when the reader is immersed in a kind of trance, left alone with his mind. This mental state most often occurs when a person reads something very interesting for some time. Outer world disappears, and in its place come vivid images created by the imagination based on what has been read. This means that the brain is focused only on the book and is actively developing, using both hemispheres.
Based on this, it is difficult to divide books into “useful” and “useless”. After all, in themselves they are only a bunch of information, and personal growth occurs mainly due to the reading process itself. Thus, when studying fiction, the right, creative hemisphere of the brain will work and learn more actively, and when studying non-fiction, the left, analytical hemisphere will work more actively.
How to read books correctly: effective reading
1. Set a goal. The benefits of reading will be maximum only if it has a clear purpose. For example, if you urgently need to find important information, it makes sense to use the viewing or introductory reading method, and study the useful fragment more deeply. If you hope to learn something in detail with the help of a book, the learning method is suitable.
2. Choose a good book. Reading everything is a bad idea. Choose only high-quality literature. Read reviews and reviews, carefully review the content. Do not start reading until you are sure that the book contains exactly what you are looking for.
3. Read in short sessions. What is read “in one gulp” is poorly remembered. If you are going to read a book in a study or introductory way (in its entirety), divide the process over several days or even weeks. Non-fiction is best read in the morning, when the brain is alert and open to new knowledge, while fiction is more suitable for evening sessions.
4. Write down what you read. When reading specialized literature, write down the most important points. This way you will remember them much better and will be able to quickly find them if necessary.
5. Give up perfectionism. Don’t read simply because “it’s a pity to quit.” If the book is of no use to you, there is no point. Leave her alone and study the literature you really need. It doesn’t matter how much you read if you don’t remember or learn anything.
6. Read regularly. Train yourself to read daily and you will soon notice how your life will begin to change in better side. You will become more confident, smarter, wittier, more sociable, and difficulties will be reduced. life path will stop scaring you.
Just imagine that you can learn absolutely any skill, communicate with great people who died thousands of years ago, learn almost any fact known to mankind. Whatever your question, the answer is contained in books, since many hundreds of people have asked it before you. In a word, in the battle on life’s fronts, books are the best weapon. Arm yourself!
“You don't need books, but what was once in them, which could still be on the programs of our living rooms. The same attention to detail, the same sensitivity and consciousness could be cultivated by our radio and television programs, but, alas, they do not. No, no, books won’t give you everything you want right away. Look for it yourself wherever you can - in old gramophone records, in old films, in old friends. Look for it in the nature around you, in yourself. Books are just one of the containers where we store what we are afraid to forget. There is no mystery, no magic in them. The magic is only in what they say, in the way they sew the shreds of the universe into a single whole.”
Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451”
Recently, reading has been actively promoted on many resources. A huge number of lists of books marked “must-read”, cute pictures “about how cool it is to read and become smarter”, and the like are created. The propaganda is so active that the very fact of reading is elevated to an absolute. But what does reading give us?
My next statement may seem strange to some, but this is all complete nonsense. Reading does not make you smarter, kinder, or better. We over-romanticize and exaggerate the possibilities and role of books. We hold them (as we do quite often) responsible for who we have become and the world we live in. Isn't it? Are we type-smart-readers, we don’t sigh furtively: “If only people read more, the world would be a better place.” In one of his interviews, Boris Strugatsky said:
“It’s funny and impossible to treat the reader as a kind of pet raised on your books - he was raised by Mother Life, and in this life your book is just a small crumb, a spark, elementary particle being, capable, of course, of much: to support, strengthen, convince, but in no way capable of changing, transforming, “transforming.”
All the books in the world are not capable of this - otherwise why do scoundrels, swindlers, liars, and moral monsters thrive among us. All of them are literate. Most of them had to read. There are no books that teach you to be a liar, a cheat and a moral monster. They all teach the opposite. And yet...
So what does reading do then?
In my opinion, reading doesn’t make you smarter - yes, your horizons and erudition expand, but reading doesn’t make you smarter. A thought process that triggers Maybe serving as a book is, after all, an optional process and depends entirely on the desire of the reader. Let's not forget about this tiny factor (which those who talk about the importance of reading completely forget about) – what books we read and what thoughts after reading we think, if, of course, we think.
Agree, there is some difference between Dostoevsky and the same Coelho (no matter what they say about the fact that each author has his own reader, that value lies in diversity, “what is good for a Russian is death for a German,” etc.)
I’ve been rummaging through popular video blogs on YouTube about books nominated no more or less for the Ozon Prize “best book blog 2014″ (ulielie, Olya Monday, [ala] and BadmaestroVs). Video blogs of girls, in my opinion, confirm the idea that reading does not make you smarter. A video blog BadmaestroVs confirms the hypothesis that, firstly, on average men smarter than women in a ratio of at least 1 to 3, and secondly, that intelligence is not a guarantee of anything. The mind cannot be synonymous with decency, kindness, depth and other human virtues.
One of the main advantages that good books give (and I am convinced that reading makes sense) good books), They shift our gaze from our loved ones to truly important things. Sometimes we even make a discovery - it turns out that you are not the center of the earth at all, and there is something in the world that is much more important and greater than us: our desires, our feelings, our pain...
Good books ask questions. These questions are from the category of difficult, inconvenient, but if you think about them, it will lead to something. Such questions make our soul stretch, make it slide off the comfortable sofa of pleasure, make it move and work. Although, of course, as Ray Bradbury wrote, you don’t have to read books for this... even good ones.
What does reading give me?
For me it is still the best, because I am a terrible selfish person, and good books literally pull me out of my life by the scruff of the neck. snot-about-how-it-doesn’t matter to me, and gently but firmly shake and set the brains in place. They wipe my foggy eyepieces, turn my gaze into the night sky, in which myriads of stars shine, lift me to the tops of mountains, where a clean and cool wind blows (by the way, this is exactly the way I determine for myself which books are good and which are not) .
So by reading good books I save myself from myself. Perhaps the authors of good books themselves were saving themselves from themselves when they wrote books... Who knows?..
The benefits of books have been talked about more and more often recently due to a noticeable decrease in the number of readers in general. There are suggestions that the current generation does not pay enough attention to reading. But in vain, since it is simply necessary for the spiritual development of the individual.
In this article we will tell you what a book gives a person.
Books as a source of information
Firstly, the book is an invaluable source of various knowledge. It is through reading that a person learns a lot of what he encounters in life. real life impossible for him. For example, when reading fiction about past centuries, a person enriches his knowledge of other eras. He learns how people lived in other times, what traditions and customs were, and draws important conclusions for himself. Thus, the reading person acquires information on history. If he gets into the habit of reading such works constantly, he will learn to sort and analyze this information: he will have something to compare what he reads with.
What is the benefit of reading books that are not fiction? These can be books on psychology and archaeology, economics and sociology, scientific, popular science and many others. Such books, as a rule, have a smaller audience, since they are aimed at a specific sector of readers. However, reading them contributes to the acquisition of specific knowledge in certain areas, which a person will (or is expected to) apply in the future.
With the help of manual books, many people acquire valuable information regarding various areas. For example, with the help of a cookery book you can learn how to cook and bake well, in psychology you can learn how to behave correctly in certain situations, in the art of origami you can make interesting things out of paper, etc.
Thus, the book significantly expands the reader’s horizons, makes him smarter and more educated (it’s not for nothing that the words “well-read” and “educated” are often used as synonyms), empowers necessary knowledge and enriches vocabulary. In addition, reading books develops memory much better than all other methods used to improve it.
Books as a way of spiritual development
Naturally, when asked what books provide, one cannot help but mention enrichment inner world person. The book undoubtedly inspires the reader, gives him new views, makes him think and experience completely new feelings and emotions. For example, when a girl has not yet experienced love, she probably already read about it in some work of art. She begins to think about this feeling, empathize with the characters, analyze their actions and, therefore, she already forms her own opinion about what she has not experienced in reality.
By the way, it is very important to note here psychological factor. Reading allows us to look at different situations from the outside. We observe what is happening in the work, but at the same time we try it on own life. In some characters we recognize our acquaintances, in other characters we recognize ourselves. That is why reading cannot leave a person indifferent, unless, of course, we're talking about O worth a book. This is how we learn psychology: we observe, compare, evaluate and, finally, understand and accept. It enriches our spiritual world and allows us to reconsider many incorrect attitudes and principles. It’s not for nothing that they say that one book can change a person. Strong works can actually radically change the reader’s worldview.
A person receives most of all information through reading. Of course, this is not only reading books or newspapers, but, for example, news on the Internet, updates in social network or even SMS.
Thanks to reading, a person learns the news, reads letters, can read the name of a store, a prescription for a medicine, an instruction manual for a device, a name on an election ballot, and much, much more. Without the ability to read, a person becomes helpless. Reading allows a person to live fully.
Books are probably the most important part of reading, because it is in books that we get life experience, which will be useful to us in life. In books, we can live someone else’s life, analyze it for mistakes or, conversely, brilliant decisions. In the future, we will be able to use this knowledge in our lives.
Of course, it is advisable to read interesting and informative books. I can recommend my favorite books. They are more suitable for teenage boys. This is: “The Martian Chronicles”, Ray Bradbury, “ Fifteen year old captain”, Jules Verne, “The Three Musketeers”, Alexandre Dumas, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn”, Mark Twain, “ White Fang”, Jack London, “Robinson Crusoe”, Daniel Dafoe, “Divergent”, Veronica Roth, “The Maze Runner”, James Dashner and “Gentlemen and Players”, Joanne Harris.
For girls, the list of books is as follows (my sister and her friends helped me compile it): “The Lovely Bones”, Ellis Sebold, “The Hunger Games”, Suzanne Collins, “Twilight”, Stephenie Meyers, “Pride and Prejudice”, Jane Austen, “ Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert, “Jane Eyre”, Charlotte Brontë, “The 100”, Cass Morgan, “My Best Enemy”, Eli Frey and “Scarlet Sails”, Alexander Greene.
Of course, this is a very small list, but if you want to immerse yourself in the magical world of reading, then for starters, this is very cool, in my opinion.
